By Molly Martin, Westword | “I’ve got two good partners. We’re an awesome team,” says Tony Meggit, who has been the co-owner of the Lion’s Lair, a local institution at 2022 East Colfax Avenue, for over three decades. Now he’s got two new co-owners helping him to continue its legacy as one of the city’s best dive bars and independent music venues.
After longtime co-owner Doug Kauffman decided to retire earlier this year, Meggit brought on Demi Merritt, who has been working at the Lair for about six years, and Thorne (“That’s what people call me; there are too many Michaels,” he quips), a longtime loyal customer and friend of Meggit’s.
The address has long housed an independent venue — first as the Playboy Club in the ’30s, then the Aladdin Lounge. In 1967, the club was purchased by John Lyons and transformed into the Lion’s Lair. Meggit and Kauffman bought the bar from Lyons in the ’90s and have kept it pretty much the same. “We try not to change anything here,” Meggit notes.
But things almost did change in a huge way in 2020, when the bar was forced to close for eight months because of COVID-19, putting its future at risk. Over 780 donations were made to a GoFundMe that raised more than $34,000 to keep the doors open. While Meggit says that he only saw a portion of that after taxes and fees, “it got us through the pandemic.”
At the time, bars were required to sell food in order to reopen, so the Lair brought in a pizza oven from Rocky Mountain Pizza — an addition that remains today.
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Read the full story here:
https://www.westword.com/restaurants/denver-dive-bar-and-music-venue-lions-lair-has-a-new-ownership-team-18151493
Molly Martin is the Westword Food & Drink editor. She’s been writing about the dining scene in Denver since 2013, and was eating her way around the city long before that. She enjoys long walks to the nearest burrito joint and nights spent sipping cocktails on Colfax.
http://www.lionslairlounge.squarespace.com
[Thanks to Alex Teitz for contributing this article! http://www.femmusic.com]
Photo: Lion’s Lair
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